share-link

Kreamer Street is full of STEAM

1 thumbnail168203
2 thumbnail168204
3 thumbnail168205
4 thumbnail168206
5 thumbnail168207
Kreamer Street Elementary School in the South Country Central School District hosted its second annual STEAM Day on March 12. In addition to science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics activities integrated into the day’s lessons, the students visited a SkyDome Planetarium, sponsored by the South Country Education Foundation, where they learned about the solar system.
School librarian Chris Belford allowed students to participate in an array of STEAM activities such as coding on Chromebooks, building structures using Kid K’Nex, drawing and painting and making a musical doorbell out of snap circuits. Students also harvested mixed greens from the aquaponic garden in the STEAM lab and bagged them for distribution at Island Harvest. 
Merrill Banks’ class worked in teams as student-engineers to construct Lego structures. Each student had an assigned job to draw a rendering and to construct parts of their structure, which were then put together to create a three-story house, cat house, house and garden duo or castle. The exercise fostered important STEAM elements including communication, teamwork and synergy.
STEAM Day teacher coordinator Gina Benzie noted that the day encouraged students to “explore through doing and to excite students about science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics concepts.” Ms. Benzie’s first grade class collaborated with older students to build leprechaun traps to emphasize STEAM’s engineering principles.  
During the 2018-2019 school year, Kreamer Street Elementary built a designated lab to introduce STEAM elements to students in tandem with the district’s grade-level curriculum. The STEAM lab is equipped with a SMART TV, a hydroponics lab, and opportunities to explore, build and fine tune motor skills through the use of Magna Tiles, Legos, robotics technology and more. The students visit the lab each week, where Principal Sean Clark said there is a lot of creativity and problem-solving happening each day.